Sunday 1 June 2014

Special, Sunday 01 Jun 2014, Balderdash5 A Little Story, about some Mad Men


A Little Story, about some Mad Men*

The mad leaders of Railway Workers' Association are in a small Karnataka town.They move to get into a car and go ahead. Travelling to Latin airway's railroad terminus they order, "Stew, without a hint of  watercress, first, then a bit of dal, waiter!". "Stop, change sides before first train departs destroying the goose which has expelled an egg." "A snake is after George!", Edward panted. "Climb up a small church and leaving first alderman,go up. Go up, Sir, before 'e comes". "A heartless boa climbed on Edward's head and reduced intoxicated dash the first Kannadiga had in the stronghold",  insinuated a Chair Car customer endlessly before starting dining. With resentment, a neutral girl wrestled the unknown mad men (in Asia) with loss of memory tiredly, without ego, and packing them into a set of modified wings.

*Well, that's an odd story you might say. I told you so upfront! Maybe, you will have to overlook a few odd usages and even some grammatical mistakes. But the above paragraph constitutes the across clues for this puzzle. The enumeration (the blank cells to be filled in each across slot) can be seen from the grid, but you will have to figure out where one clue ends and another starts.  A single sentence may contain one or more clues, though no clue spans across the end of a sentence into the next.

DOWN
2 Modify an American advocate's exercise (5)
3 American bad-land stew (4,4)
4 Incidents of anger directed by or against fellow drivers (4-5)
5 French utilise safety device (4)
6 Run and endear to get the tail-bit (4-3)
7 A police department in charge is vitriolic (6)
8 Signify heavy weight is immersed backwards in the river (6)
11 Hermit ages abnormally (4)
15 Observe water-body endlessly with ecstasy (3)
16 Stamina to endure an accident involving first car (9)
17 Colour of nitroglycerine mixed after confused client left (4-4)
18 Thin English film director (4)
19 Immaculateness of little sister was observed after a month (7)
21 Prohibit a North American fruit  (6)
22 Tintin's dance (3-3)
25 Mathematician king beheaded by expert, at first (5)
26 Wide awake and having a plan (4)


INSTRUCTIONS
One Across clue and One Down clue per person (with annotations) till 6 pm or till stocks last. Please give the text of the clue too when giving answers to the across clues.

The Across Lite version is available at the following link BALDERDASH5-A Little Story, about some Mad Men

Please remember that in the Across Lite version the Across clues are not as per actual clue numbers.

Enjoy.

112 comments:

  1. 21 Prohibit a North American fruit (6) BAN A NA

    ReplyDelete
  2. 11 Hermit ages abnormally (4) SAGE {AGES}*

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  3. 22 Tintin's dance (3-3)
    CAN-CAN {tin=can}

    ReplyDelete
  4. Is the limit of 3 clues/head applicable today also?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Only one across and one down per person

      Delete
    2. Renga, Ram has answered your query and I have deleted the 2 extra downs

      Delete
  5. mad men (in Asia) with loss of memory => AMNESIA* 29 ACROSS

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  6. Sorry, I missed the instruction given at the bottom. Thanks Ram

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  7. 14A "A snake is after George!", Edward panted. {G}{ASP}{ED}
    4D 4 Incidents of anger directed by or against fellow drivers (4-5) ROAD-RAGES (E)

    ReplyDelete
  8. The mad leaders of Railway Workers' Association are in a small Karnataka town.
    KA(RWA)R
    Small Karnataka = KAR
    Leaders if Railway Workers Association = R W A

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The above across clue is for 1 A The mad leaders of Railway Workers' Association are in a small Karnataka town.
      KA(RWA)R
      If you want to use mad leaders, then anno is {K(ARW)*AR}

      Delete
  9. Loved it!

    27A: Insinuated a chair car customer endlessly before starting dining ====> A CC USE(-r) D(-ining)

    8D: Signify heavy weight is immersed backwards in the river ====> DE(NOT<--)E

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sent you a mail at z****. That is your mail id, if I am not wrong.

      Delete
    2. Seems to be an asterisk short

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    3. Oh, I did not count. It starts with zak ... And ends with i , right?

      Delete
    4. Mistook it for another email ID I have (z*****)!
      Replied

      Delete
  10. 13 Across : Departs destroying the goose which has expelled an egg. (4) GOES {GO(-o)ES}*



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  11. My 2

    5A - They move to get into a car and go ahead {FO{RWA}RD}
    7D - {A}{CID}{IC}

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  12. 19.A. ASCEND. Climb up. A Small CE(church) aND .AND leaving first of Alderman

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  13. @Balderdash: Thanks for an enjoyable crossword :)

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  14. Except 9 Ac got all!. Nice one Balderdash. Really boosting my confidence level. Thank you!

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    Replies
    1. Did you get 10a?

      Delete
    2. Nice workout. Think there might be something redundant in 19A

      Will 9 be construed as 1 solution or...? Don't want to spoil it

      19D: Immaculateness of little sister was observed after a month (7) A+SEP+SIS

      Delete
    3. 19a 3d, though 2 def.s are synonyms ...

      You are right about 9. Ref my 101

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    4. A two header train, if i may say so, Bhala

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    5. Yep Kishore, I spotted your 'tongue in cheek' 101 if I may say so. Anyway not giving it out now, there's no emergency there, even if I have my quota
      Didn't figure out what you are saying about 19A and relevance to 3D
      Nice job!

      Delete
    6. Climb up= go up, 2 def.s at either side, tho' as you say, go up was unnecessary. It was detritus from trying to continue to next clue, but got repeated and I decided to let it be as 3rd def

      Delete
    7. Actually Kishore, I felt if you had put a comma after 'go up' rather than a full stop, it would have worked fine. Then the 'go up' could have been used for the next clue as def, which as things stand now, doesn't have one, or one term doing double duty. Only because in the instructions it specified that clues don't cut across sentences this problem arises, otherwise no issues at all

      Delete
    8. I think "go up" doing double duty for 20a is quite fine: the clue stands on its own without needing the previous "go up". I have a different problem with the clue: using "go up" as a reversal indicator for an across clue!

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    9. Bhala, you have got it correct. I forgot this when writing the instructions. Apologies are due. Abhay, you are also correct about "go up" in an across clue. " go back" would have been a better choice.

      Delete
  15. An enjoyable crossy of different variety! Thank you Balderdash.

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  16. Funtastic!
    A novel and a CW. Nice and enjoyable combination. Unfortunately logged in late.
    I think what I have got for 10A is right.

    ReplyDelete
  17. 10A- Station
    Railroad terminus

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  18. Col.
    5A- RWA from?
    I also filled in 'forward' from 'Go ahead', but anno not clear for me.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. "They", the aforementioned leaders of RWA

      Delete
  19. 9,10 - RAILWAY STATION ( TO LATIN AIRWAYS)* Travelling is the anagrid, Def. - railroad terminus

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Forgot to add the full line: "Travelling to Latin airway's railroad terminus"

      Delete
  20. 17d: IRON GREY
    Def.: Colour
    Anagram of NI(t)ROG(l)Y(c)ER(ine) after removing the letters of client

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  21. Thanks to Deepak for entertaining this kind of Balderdash and to others for trying and liking it. I hope present some more nonsense in the future.

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  22. A very interesting idea indeed! The only fly in the ointment is that the down clues are quite easy, and having them in place makes the task of identifying the matching across clues way less difficult. In retrospect, I should have tried just the across clues on their own at first and then checked the down clues to see if they fit!

    Thanks a ton to the setter for an entertaining puzzle!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I was a bit worried about the reception that the idea might receive and hence decided to keep down clues simple. If they were tough, given the nature of the across clues, I might have encountered substantial flak.

      Delete
    2. That was my feeling too. But still, crafty bloke that you are, you had across words of same length, starting with same letter etc, so it was not entirely plain sailing. Very entertaining, thanks for putting this together

      Delete
    3. Thanks. Unlike making a normal grid, I had to write a clue, and check for availability of suitable crossings, before proceeding. Making the men mad gave me some leeway to make them spout random sentences, but I tried to keep a narrative going around the threads of railway and dining.

      Delete
  23. 11 Across: STEWARD-- Stew, without a hint of watercress, first, then a bit of dal-- watercress anagram- with deletions- bit of dal -d-

    AN excellent way of presenting the clues hidden- this is the way messages used to be sent across during the world wars , isn't it, using cryptic crosswords , COL?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. 11a not watercress anagram, Raju ...

      Delete
    2. The complete clue is "they order, "Stew, without a hint of watercress, first, then a bit of dal, waiter!""
      I parsed it a bit tenuously as STE (stew without 'hint of watercress'), then WAR from the 'first' clue (since "they" are referenced again at the beginning), and D from "bit of dal". Round about, I know, but I couldn't see any other way of making it work!

      Delete
  24. Chinese adage: Only mad men can make sense out of nonsense.

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  25. Kishore,
    You can add one more feather to your cap. I think you have opened a Pandora's box and many more are likely to come out.

    ReplyDelete
  26. 23A: A heartless Boa climbed on Edward's head and reduced. {A}{B(-o)A}{TED} ABATED
    25D Mathematician King is beheaded by expert, at first (-r)(+E)ULER. EULER

    ReplyDelete
  27. 28A With resentment a neutral girl wrestled the unknown ANGRILY A+N + Anag of GIRL+ Y

    ReplyDelete
  28. Very enjoyable but wish the crossword had opened in Acrosslite. For some reason it didn't open for me

    ReplyDelete
  29. 9A is done by Abhay
    12A DESIST Stop, change sides before first train {sides* + t from first train}
    3d WILDWEST Anag of west.

    Enjoyable balderdash

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I parsed 3d a little differently.
      - The definition, of course, is "American bad-land" (although I don't think I have seen 'badland' used in the singular before - it is usually 'badlands')
      - 'badlands'=wilds, so we can take "badland"=WILD, which is both the first word *and* the anagram indicator to get the second word WEST from 'stew'.

      Delete
    2. I must admit that this parsing is reverse engineering after having got the word from the crosses and the definition (this was one of the only two down clues for which the crosses had to be checked before I could get the solution).

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    3. Badlands, as you say, is a type of arid terrain. I am just referring to the bad land. The hyphen is to be ignored. When used as an adjective badlands, like highlands, loses its s. For eg, Scottish highlands, but highland regiment, highland dress etc. similarly, badland stew

      Delete
    4. Yes. That is what I also had. But typed it in a hurry.

      Delete
  30. I didn't see that one is allowed one answer for down also: In that case, 16 down is ENDURANCE-- ENDURE AN C -- stamina

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anno elaborated:
      16 Stamina to // endure an accident / involving first car (9) (ENDURE AN)* with C inside = {ENDURAN(C)E*}
      accident - AnagrInd

      Delete
  31. Thanks, Balderdash, for varying the routine and ushering in a novel challenge. Yet another feather in your hat!
    30A tiredly, without ego, and packing them into a set of modified wings. (6) (ELYTRA*-id)(A)
    (TIREDLY-id)* (A) anterior pair of wings in Coleoptera and some other insects
    6D 6 Run and endear to get the tail-bit (4-3) {R}{EAR-END*}

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Having used up my quota of answers, I was waiting for someone to post the answer to 30a to voice my peeve: ego and id are NOT synonymous, they are different entities! This bit was disappointing in an otherwise well-clued puzzle.

      Delete
    2. I agree they are not the same but analogous. Other wrong but accepted usages in cwds are company and firm, ratio and proportion, off the cuff

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    3. Analogous at a BIG stretch, and strictly in the sense that id and ego are (two of the three different) components of personality in Freudian theory. While not quite opposite to each other (like id and superego), they are indeed different from each other.

      Delete
    4. Then the same applies to the other two examples, especially the latter

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    5. Remembering that this is a crossword and not a psychology exam, and that it didn't get in the way of solving the clue, I guess I should have let that go! Sorry, Kishore, didn't mean to belabour the point.

      Delete
    6. Since you persisted, I was thinking of directing your attention to the italicised paragraph in the post, especially the sentence starting with "Maybe". Sometimes some people do not read either the instructions or the notes ... Anyhow, your point is taken ... Lightly !

      Delete
  32. I completed this puzzle and sent the sol grid to Kishore in an email.
    I enjoyed solving it.
    Must thank the Col for providing a platform not only for budding setters but also well-budded-out setters.
    Can't imagine such novel puzzles appearing in the mainstream newspaper where not only appreciation for even ordinary puzzles is lacking but also where even a good display for those ordinary puzzles is denied.
    I had power outage from 10 a.m. and so could not enter any answers here. Will wait till 5-45 p.m. for anyone else to do so . After that time, I will enter my own quota.
    Meanwhile, congrats to Balder__.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I like the 'dash' part given above

      Delete
    2. You know of the en-dash and the em-dath and the 100m dash ...

      Delete
    3. and a clue from a future Incog. puzzle:

      Hit - and run (4)

      Delete
  33. Superb puzzle - Had so much fun doing it:)

    15D SEE - SEA (-A)+E
    20A RISE - SIR<<<<+E

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    Replies
    1. 20A - Go up, Sir, before 'e comes". {RIS<=}{E}

      Delete
  34. As a matter of fact, 24a for me was the LOI.
    Not a difficult clue but what happened was I had inadvertently made an unintended mistake while entering the answer to 18d whose last letter is a checking letter for 24a.
    While writing in answers errors are unlikely. But nowadays it is common when we solve crosswords interactively in small hand-held devices.
    So if a clue proves intractable, don't give up! Carefully re-examine the answers in the area to spot any slip. Once that is corrected, the other one is likely to fall in place.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. :-)

      Do you advertently make intended mistakes ....?

      Delete
  35. To give the text of clue and the anno for 24a's answer entered above -

    intoxicated dash the first Kannadiga had in the stronghold", D(RUN K) EN

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  36. Done and dusted.

    BD, dhool kilappeeteenga.

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  37. Thanks, everyone for the roses and thorns.

    CV, I did not get the import of your 522

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    Replies
    1. Dhool is dust so I presume kilappeeteenga is either dusted or despatched

      Delete
  38. 'Dhool kilappittinga' means that you have done something extremely well (probably he means path breaking). Col. is right about dust. Probably the literal meaning would be that one has created such a ruckus that there was dust all over.

    ReplyDelete
  39. Kishore,
    Have you heard the saying "Vasishter vayaale Brimharishi'? You have received the best compliment for the best compiler. So this type of cluing is not only appreciated, but has come to stay and the honour of creating it will always go to you. Like whenever you say Everest, you only think of Tensing Hillary and not thousands of others who have done it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I only know of Sivaji vaayile jilebi, taught by Bhargav!

      Delete
    2. That is not a compliment. That is only 3 three letter words which work out the same both horizontally & vertically. What Vasishtar... means is that you have got the compliment from one who will give it only to the most deserving.

      Delete
    3. ...and of course he is the best man to approve.

      Delete
    4. Thanks, Paddy. Thanks, CV

      Delete
    5. For "dhool kilappu", the Tamil phrasal dictionary that I have gives "perform brilliantly" as the meaning in English. The Tamil explanation, in my own translation, is:
      (in a task in which one is involved) to perform it exceedingly well or to exhibit one'sr talent so well that it elicits compliments from others.

      Our Ram would say a similar phrase is 'pattaya kilappu' - one that I know - but alas that phrase does not seem to be included in the dictionary. I can't say why it is not recorded - maybe I don't know where to look.

      Delete
    6. When a herd of cattle stands still, it's no big deal. But if it moves fast, if it moves furiously, if it races heartily, if it stampedes - a lot of dust is created. (Raju - you guessed it right). People notice the dust and are awe-struck.

      Delete
    7. Nice to get your explanation just past Godhooli ...

      Delete
    8. Pattya kilappu cannot be found in any dictionary since it is a total slang and and not a good one at that. That pattai refers to... of course CV knows.

      Delete
  40. Isn't Dhool kilappeettengala to kick up a dust? My Tamil is tatty and hence I'm not kicking up one !

    CV: What's or who's BD?
    Except 30 across, which I dare not put in, I completed the puzzle !! The trick seems to be - complete the easy down clues and get the other across clues ! Kishore; When is your next acrobatic acrostic cryptic trick? On hind sight ( eyes in the rump??) , I worked out the correct annotation of the stewed up watercress clue that you pointed out but didn't bother to respond .

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Did I miss to respond? Pl let me what time you posted. I seem to have responded to the one at 204, after which I have not seen any post from you.

      Delete
    2. Raju,
      After doing the whole puzzle, you are asking who is BD. It could not be anybody else but Balderdash, also known as Kishore. Vidiya vidiya Ramayanm kettu....

      Delete
    3. Reminded of a KannaDa ditty:

      Naanu neenu joDi,
      Onde yettina gaaDi,
      GaaDi voLage laDy,
      LaDy bayalli BD.

      Delete
  41. Meaning????
    You and me form a pair
    How many vehicles do you have?
    Inside the vehicle is lady
    In the mouth of lady is Beedi

    ReplyDelete
  42. I had cut and pasted the story part into a text file, and kept marking off the clues as I found them. This resulted in the list of clues - am putting it down below for what it's worth!

    Thanks again to BD for a great time.

    1. The mad leaders of Railway Workers' Association are in a small Karnataka town.
    5. They move to get into a car and go ahead.
    9,10. Travelling to Latin airway's railroad terminus
    11. they order, "Stew, without a hint of watercress, first, then a bit of dal, waiter!".
    12. "Stop, change sides before first train
    13. departs destroying the goose which has expelled an egg."
    14."A snake is after George!", Edward panted.
    19. "Climb up a small church and leaving first alderman,
    20. go up. Go up, Sir, before 'e comes".
    23. "A heartless boa climbed on Edward's head and reduced
    24. intoxicated dash the first Kannadiga had in the stronghold",
    27. insinuated a Chair Car customer endlessly before starting dining.
    28. With resentment, a neutral girl wrestled the unknown
    29. mad men (in Asia) with loss of memory
    30. tiredly, without ego, and packing them into a set of modified wings.

    ReplyDelete
  43. I think the second line means:
    Just one bullock car

    Other lines are as you've rendered them.

    ReplyDelete
  44. Simply superb! I thoroughly enjoyed this exercise. Thank you!
    I have often referred to your page for solutions to the crossword.
    This is my first comment, though.

    ReplyDelete
  45. Paddy:
    Dash my bald head ! I must have been in the Land of Nod. B(a)d B(a)d of me !!
    Kishore: at times, the postings vanish.. in the clouds ? So when is the next Balderdash? from BD? makes every one's Brain go Dead !!

    CV: Dhool is a Hindi word? How did it migrate to Tamil? I'm a Dhool Ka Fool in such matters

    ReplyDelete

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